Trader's Comment: Palm oil futures surrendered most of its earlier gains to end mix

Palm oil futures surrendered most of its earlier gains to end mix on India’s moves to cut import duty on soy oil. Benchmark Jun09 immediately surged to intra day high of 1945 after opened RM20 higher at 1925 tracking the strong rebound of NYMEX crude oil and eCBOT soy oil during their early trading in Asian time. It then hovered between 1935-1925 until it closed at 1927 before lunch time. However, market sentiment in afternoon session began to change after the released of news stating that India government is doing away with custom duty on soy oil to narrow its premium over imported palm oil. CPO prices started to fall and hit intra day low of 1893 before it bounced back slightly again to settle RM6 higher at 1911. total daily volume stood at 21,334 contracts changed hands.